PCS requests meeting with Work and Pensions Secretary

This week the government published its Get Britain Working White Paper with outlined reforms for the way unemployment benefits are delivered, including the suggestion that a new National Jobs and Careers Service will be created.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote has written to Liz Kendall MP, secretary of state for Work and Pensions, requesting a meeting to discuss the proposals, which were not discussed with us prior to their publication.

As the union that represents tens of thousands of members working for DWP, Fran’s letter regrets that we were not consulted, as we would have “welcomed the opportunity to provide our knowledge and expertise in the development of these proposals.”

Fran’s letter points out that we have “called on successive governments to create well paid, secure and quality jobs whilst ensuring the social security system has support at its heart. We have campaigned for a fresh approach, ensuring adequate staffing in the department, with autonomy and time for work coaches to ensure the best, personalised service for claimants. PCS has argued that the sanction regime does little to increase employment, instead creating a system which demoralises service users and does little to improve employment.”

Fran explains that if a new National Jobs and Careers Service is created, PCS is “committed to ensuring that our members' jobs and the services they provide remain part of the core civil service. We are also concerned that the plans, although promoted as an attempt to tackle ‘economic inactivity’, signal a continuation of the previous government’s concerted attacks on the most vulnerable in our society.”

In response to a question in parliament on from the chair of the PCS parliamentary group, John McDonnell MP, Liz Kendall did respond that “either the Minister for Employment or I would be very happy to meet the PCS to talk about how we take these plans forward.” We are therefore hopeful of a positive response to our request for a meeting soon.

DWP group president Angela Grant said: "We are calling on this new Labour government to engage with the union to draw upon the knowledge and experience of our members. PCS has a vision for a fairer social security system that puts support for the poorest and most vulnerable members of society at its heart."